Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Where the work never ends

When I arrive on campus at the crack of dawn in the middle of spring break, I expect to find a parking space. But not today! By 8 a.m. the parking lots were full--of pickup trucks. Not redneck-style heaps of rust but big shiny duallies of the sort that contractors drive. That's not something you see every day in an academic context. Clearly our campus has been taken over by aliens.

Why am I here so early? Because I haven't been in a library since last Friday and I'm suffering withdrawal--and besides, I need a fast internet connection so I can find some good video clips to use in my comedy class next week when I introduce Depression-era comedy. Reading Miss Lonelyhearts seems to be plunging my students into depression anyway, so let's see if Charlie Chaplin can cheer them up.

And then there's this big pile of annoying piddly little tasks I need to tackle, blech. I've promised myself that if I can clear all this junk off my to-do list, I'll take a drive down to the Ohio River backwater where eagles have been nesting. It's oddly quiet in my building and dark too, since the lights in the basement are triggered by motion sensors and there's no one moving around out in the hallways. I've got Michael Buble turned up high to keep me company so I'll just keep working until the work runs out.

Alternately, I could just go dump it all in the back of a big shiny pickup truck. That's what they get for taking my parking space.